It seems like ages since we last updated you all on our plans and now seemed like as good a time as any to bring you up to speed. As usual, Nat's valuable contribution is shown in pink
At the time of writing, my ticker reads 3 months, 2 weeks and 3 days – while this sounds like a long time still, I have no doubt that once we are into the school holiday period, the time will fly by and both Nat and I have commented that we could do with an extra few weeks really (if, for nothing else, than to save a few extra pennies).
With accommodation now finalised, the overall holiday looks something like this:
18th October – travel to Gatwick, stay overnight at the Hilton (courtesy of Tesco)
19th October – fly to Orlando, check in to Animal Kingdom Villas (Kidani Village) for 10 nights
29th October – travel to Port Canaveral and join the Disney Wonder for a 3-night cruise
1st November - return to WDW and check in to Bay Lake Towers for our last night
I am so excited to be staying at both AKV and BLT. Ever since our first trip to Disney back in 2004, I have wanted to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge so to finally have the chance is a dream come true for me.
And for me! On our very first WDW trip my Mum had wanted to stay at AKL but we ended up staying off site. She is very jealous. The kids seem thoroughly underwhelmed by the choice of accommodation but I’m hoping that will change when we get there lol.
Both Nat and I have been working hard to uphold our ‘Bad Mothers’ image.
Personally, I have grounded both girls on a number of occasions – for absolutely no reason, of course
– and also managed to spectacularly forget to pick Daniel up from school on Monday. All excellent examples of bad mother behaviour, if I may be permitted to say so.
I’ve been upholding my image as well. Despite my best efforts at attending all school assemblies, sports days and concerts for the kids, I am apparently the Mother from hell (especially in Matthew’s case) and indeed cannot even look at Matthew in the right tone of voice!
Planning for the Double Digit Dance Party (DDDP) is well underway – the party takes place on Saturday 11th July which, technically, is 100 days before but the celebrations will continue for the whole weekend so I think we can be forgiven for starting a day early – anyway, everybody knows that the holiday actually starts the day you travel to the airport, which is 99 days after the 11th.
As far as the rest of the plans go, we have finalised our list of parks. Unfortunately, Sea World did not make the final cut purely due to lack of time. Busch Gardens is in, as are all four Disney Parks (obviously) and both Universal Parks. We have got 14-day Ultimate tickets for Disney so will manage to fit in at least one water park trip also.
The pre-holiday diet has not been going particularly well for me, of late, and my current loss stands at 28 ½ lbs. Nat, on the other hand, has done brilliantly and is now at target. Well done mate!
Gary did say that if I had only lost as many lbs, for this holiday, as I have £££s, I’d be a size 6 by now
Disney threw us a curveball earlier in the year when they decided to reduce the ADR pre-booking to 90 days again and revert to releasing park hours 3 months in advance also. As a consequence, we have not been able to quite finalise our ADR plans, however the list includes:
T-Rex
Sanaa
Boma
Chef Mickeys
The Plaza
I was given the job of ringing to book T-Rex as Joh can book our other ADR's through member services. It was great! I managed to book it all correctly with only 1 text to Joh to double check the details
There was some discussion over Raglan Road, with Nat and I both in favour, however Gary isn’t keen. Not sure if his reasoning holds true though – apparently, the menu is so limited (for him) that he always ends up having sausage and mash. When I pointed out that the fish and chips is really nice, his response was ‘I wouldn’t order that, I can have fish and chips at home’. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, sausage and mash is something of a rarity here in Wiltshire
I am hoping that we manage to fit in Raglan Road. On our last trip I was poorly on the night we ate there and ended up going back to Pop Century without any dessert....so I’m owed one, I think!
So, here we are – still 3 months, 4 weeks and 2 days away – hopefully park hours will be out by the weekend so we can get the rest of our ADRs sorted (although the majority are not dependent on park hours anyway).
The next update will be after the DDDP – roll on 11th July
the slow update is my fault ! im meant to be adding my comments but m having problems with the email Joh sent me
.x.
,Nat i am not sure if Joh is aware of the $226 saga of Build-A-Dino 
,you must warn her 
You know what kids are like, I'm sure the not-speaking thing won't last long anyway - as soon as he wants something he'll be talking to you again 
